


Matters of the Heart

by aberdeenrose



Category: Orange is the New Black
Genre: F/M, Heart Attack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-23
Updated: 2016-05-23
Packaged: 2018-06-10 04:07:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6939010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aberdeenrose/pseuds/aberdeenrose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When something happens to Red, Sam Healy finds her in a drugged up state. But, will he realize it before he spills his feelings to the tough-cookie Russian? </p><p>Mature rating for now, might be raised to Explicit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Matters of the Heart

Galina Reznikov sat in her office, pouring over meal plans. If they could be called meals anymore. It seemed like every time she took one step forward, the prison system began kicking her back two. Sure, Vee Parker no longer breathed air—but Red had landed in medical with wounds from a slock on her cheek and forehead. Red got her kitchen back, but the new owners of Litchfield took away any real food. Katya Healy left Sam’s life and Red had told him that they couldn’t be together.   
She’d cursed herself since the second she’d said it, but she knew the power of words and knew she couldn’t just take it back. All she’d wanted to do was shove him into his office, lock the door, and ride him until she couldn’t walk for a month. But, she hadn’t.   
And now, they were left lusting after each other from afar. They were set back right where they were the day they met when Red walked into the damn place.   
The papers on her desk dampened with her tears. Dimitri was gone. The only man she’d ever been intimate with. She knew her feelings for Sam ran deeper than she’d ever admit to any living person. They’d never be able to live a happy ever after, not even when she’d get out in a couple months.   
Red tore off her readers, tossing them to the side of her desk.   
Of all the self-sabotaging things she’d done in her life, telling Sam they couldn’t be together had been the worst.   
The last chance she’d had for personal happiness—and she’d fucked it up.   
In the contained square of her office, Red threw whatever she could get her hands on. She let a string of Russian swear words fly from her painted lips. Her arm began to tingle, the rage surging through her. She backed up, hitting the edge of the metal file cabinet between her shoulder blades. Through the tears, she realized she’d begun to hyperventilate.   
God, if her mama could see her getting so upset over a man—she’d laugh at her only daughter.   
Red sank to the ground in an attempt to control her breathing. The world turned fuzzy and the anger had caused her temperature to skyrocket. She rocked, hitting her head back against the cement wall. 

 

The sun hadn’t risen much above the horizon. Not that Sam could see the horizon in the suburbs, but it was god early when he’d gotten a call from a woman claiming to be Red’s daughter-in-law. She’d left a short message, drenched with urgency.   
“Mr. Healy, my mother-in-law, Galina Reznikov, has ended up in the medical unit of Litchfield and Yuri wanted me to call. He’s said you and his mother have gotten on very well and he thought you should know right away. They’re taking her in for surgery, a double-bypass. If you’d like to give me a call back—” Sam had been half asleep when he heard the phone ring. By the time he’d found it in the dark, the message went through.   
He’d gone from sleepy to more awake than he’d ever been. Foregoing a shower, Sam pulled on his C.O. uniform and bolted for his truck.   
The doctors had updated the family.   
Emergency double-bypass. One artery almost completely blocked.   
It turned out that even eating healthy wouldn’t keep a heart pumping the right way. He’d give her so much hell if she made it.   
If.   
So much power in two words. Such a deep thought before coffee.   
“I’m going to get some coffee,” he announced. Her three sons and a daughter-in-law perked up at the word, even half-power hospital waiting room coffee would suffice. “There’s a Starbucks down the block.”   
Everyone’s spirits rose.   
“I’ll come with, I need to stretch my legs.” Yuri’s wife took the three orders. “Text me if you hear anything.” She turned to Sam. “I’m Zana, by the way.”   
“Careful, Healy, she’d a morning person,” Yuri quipped.   
They started down the long hallway where exhausted looking ER nurses were getting off their shift.   
“You know, Yuri doesn’t share much about Red in prison. He tells me a lot about before, when they were all a family, but he’s happy you’re there, looking after her.”   
“You call her Red? Your mother-in-law?”   
Zana gave him a dead serious nod. “She almost popped a vein in her neck when I called her Mrs. Reznikov.”  
Sam chuckled.   
Yeah. That was his Red alright.   
“Zana, you think she’ll be alright? I mean, I’ve all but watched Dimitri bring the boys, then as teens, and now, well, starting to be married.” They crossed the street as Sam spilled his guts. Maybe it was the time of day or Zana’s oddly comforting spirit. “I know this’ll sound weird, but I don’t have my own family, and it’s kind of like watching nephews grow up.”   
“I understand, I was raised—well, to be cheesy for lack of thought, I was raised by a village while my mom ran around the country side being a rock groupie.” She waited as Sam opened the door to coffee heaven for her. “But, I think so. It sounds like some inmate found her right away, heard some noise. They brought her in, evaluated, and that’s when I called you, Sir.”   
She stepped up to the barista with a chipper smile, even though the barista looked like he’d just rolled out of bed. “Hi! I’ll have a grande raspberry mocha frappuccino for me, a Redbull, two venti black coffees, and—” she turned to Sam.   
“Uh, biggest and blackest coffee you’ve got.”  
“Three ventis.”   
The barista punched in the drinks and slowly spit out the price. Sam went to grab his wallet, but Zana already had her card out and handed over.   
“Zana, you don’t have—”   
“Mr. Healy, it’s not even five-thirty, and you drove to see if your client was alright. I think I can spare a coffee for all the good you’ve done for us.”   
Sam’s spirit swelled. Somewhere, he’d obviously done something right for her, for Galina.   
They carried the drinks back to the hospital, where Dimitri had shown up. Zana gave her father-in-law a tight squeeze and introduced Sam to him.   
“We’ve met.” Dimitri stood to shake his hand.   
What Galina had ever seen in him, Sam couldn’t figure out. The man looked like a rat, and stood shorter than Galina. Much shorter than Sam. If they’d gotten into a fight, Sam would be able to take him easy.   
A nurse walked out. There were other patients in the waiting room, but the way the boys perked up, Sam knew she was Galina’s nurse. She asked the family to sit in a private room. But, Sam wasn’t family.   
“I’ll come tell you everything,” Zana whispered. She squeezed his hand.   
The clock ticked by and Sam had nothing more than to gulp down the steaming hot coffee.   
Zana walked out with a smile. She clapped her hands.   
“She’s fine. Right now she’s in recovery and we’ll see her when she starts to wake up.”   
Sam nodded. “Thank you, I have to get up to camp, but wish her my best. And, thanks for the coffee.” 

 

His office turned into a swinging door. All morning and afternoon, Red’s girls popped in. Was she alive? They’d heard she’d been dead for ten minutes. Did she have an aneurism? How could a healthy eater like Red have a heart attack?   
By the end of his shift, Sam wasn’t even sure what he knew. Well, he knew he needed to see her.   
If even just for a minute.   
All day he’d felt guilty for leaving her boys and Zana there—but even Red didn’t know how he truly felt. He couldn’t just stay there all day, waiting for her to wake up from the anesthetic.   
After last call, he shut his office door and left the girls in the dust to see his girl. Since she’d woken from surgery, she’d been transferred back to camp. 

The waiting room was empty. Only a single nurse and single guard sat in the main office.   
“I’m here to check on Reznikov. I’m her counselor.”  
The nurse punched some information before nodding for him to go on.   
When he reached the door, he heard the nurse say she was going for a smoke break. The guard grunted, too involved in his documentary on the only television.   
Fucking perfect, for once.   
The room was quiet. Only the beeping of the heart monitor. No television or radio to pass the time—how Red had survived her first bout after being slocked, he never knew. Such an active woman being slammed down by life. Going stir crazy.   
Her shapely body was faced the other way. Sheets twisted and tucked. Her sock-clad foot sticking out from the sheets. Each breath was heavy.   
Sam pulled up a plastic chair next to the side her head rested on. She was as pale as she was after Vee had gotten to her. Her more natural hair framing her prominent jaw and cheeks.   
He brushed the stray hairs, tucking them behind her ear.  
“Sam,” she moaned under her breath.  
He froze. Had she just? She hadn’t opened her eyes, no way she knew it was him. No one was that good.  
Her foot kicked out.  
“Sam, please,” she more begged, only this time it wasn’t sexy. Her breathing sped up, panicking.   
Sam cradled her hand in his, stroking her knuckles. Just as soon as he did, her breathing calmed and eyes blinked open.   
“Healy?”   
“Oh, come on, Galina.” He waited for her reaction to saying her name, she looked like a love-sick puppy—but he’d never in his life reveal that. “All your girls are worried about you. I was—uh—I was worried too. Zana called this morning and waited with them until you’d gotten out of surgery.”   
He knew he looked just as love-sick as she did.  
“Sam,” she whispered, big tears in her eyes. Her movements were slow, but she cocked a finger at him to come closer.   
Sam’s eyes swept the room and what bit of the hall he could see before leaning in. Galina puckered her lips, but Sam stopped fast. As much as it killed him, he pulled away from her.   
When she began to protest, he stopped her. “Your still doped up on pain killers, not that I wouldn’t want to completely ravage you from head-to-toe, but if we’re sharing our feelings, we’re going to do it the right way.”  
The hand she’d brought up to bring him closer flattened out and gave him a sharp tap on the cheek. She grabbed his collar bringing his face close to hers.   
“Shut up and kiss me.”  
She gave him a bruising, soul-sucking kiss. Sam gave in for a while, until he remembered where they were.   
“We have to be careful. I just needed to see you, and after seeing Dimitri this morning, I wanted you to know I’m always in your corner—to a point, scheming the system not so much—but I want you to remember that I’m here for you. And when I heard what happened, I knew I needed to tell you that you mean the world to me.”  
“Dimitri was there?” Her carefully plucked eyebrows knotted and he could see the anger growing in her.   
“That’s not the point, not to sound cocky, but I’m more a man than he’ll ever be.”   
Galina pulled him back in for another kiss. “Yes, you are and will be so much better.” She licked her lips and glanced down at his gut. “I’m sure you’ve got a nice cock too.”  
“What?” He stared at her, unsure what to say next.   
“And, when we get home, I want you to bend me over the couch and fuck me until I can’t walk, Sam.” Her eyelids drooped with each blink, until she had them closed. “And then, breakfast in bed.”   
She yawned. Gave his hand a squeeze.   
“Kiss me, one more time.”   
Sam couldn’t stop from laughing. He gave her a quick peck on the forehead.   
“Sleep tight, my drugged up little Russian beauty. I’ll come tomorrow night.”


End file.
